OSHKOSH, Wis. -- Whether drivers are scanning a lot for a spot or squeezing into a parallel space, parking is an everyday challenge for many commuters.

But one community to the north of Madison is trying to eliminate some hassle by going meter free, WISC-TV reported.

The changes in Oshkosh last month brought in a fresh parking structure all with free parking and pulled the plug on a machine notorious for putting drivers on the clock.

In Madison, most drivers play that game of plugging parking meters, but for drivers in Oshkosh, that game has changed.

"I actually park on Main Street all the time," said Oshkosh resident Wendy Hielsberg, "I like the fact that there are no meters and you can just pop in and pop out."

"You had meters, you had monthly parking, you had 90-minute parking, you just had a mish-mosh of everything," said Mark Schultz, who owns Oblio's on Main Street. Schultz said he's hopeful the new parking rules mean easier access to his tavern.

"When it's rainy out people will not want to walk three blocks in the rain to go to a tavern, my specific business," said Schultz. "But I don't think they will do that for any business."

Now, there are no parking meters to be found in Oshkosh, but people will see signs that come in a variety of colors.

"Green-lettered signs are typically short-term parking -- 90 minutes," said Christopher Strong, Oshkosh's transportation director. "Blue-lettered signs for permit parking, and that's for people with annual or monthly permits. And there are black-lettered signs in which someone can reserve a space for leased space."

City transportation officials said recent financial problems prompted the switch to meterless parking.

"A community like ours, and it's typical in communities our size, can't really charge a lot for parking." said Strong. "Charging 25 cents an hour -- it's really hard to recover costs associated with purchasing the meters, maintaining the meters, etc."

In fact, Oshkosh lost $55,000 a year from those meters. Madison meters, at $1.50 an hour, don't share the same problem.

"Our meters have always broke even and then some," said Bill Knobeloch, Madison's parking utility manager. "They created reserve or a surplus, and we use that to do things like help us rebuild the Government East ramp."

It's probably why in Madison, drivers shouldn't expect those meters to go away anytime soon.

"I don't see it," said Knobeloch. "Of course, we're meterless in most of our parking area in the city, on the fringes. They're important to us and they're important to our customers that use them."

Local transportation officials said another reason a meterless Madison wouldn't work is an inability to enforce it. With 1,600 meters in Madison, that's a lot more free parking spots to chalk and keep tabs on, compared to the 600 meters Oshkosh did away with.

Madison officials also say the city's meters will soon be able to accept credit and debit cards.